Monday, 26 October 2009

R for night's sleep

Hardly that, in fact. I woke up after a couple of hours and couldn't sleep again. I was awake for more than four hours, much of which I spent blogging. Today, I've mostly been quiet. Though I did take time to delete some rambling pages of typing which, fortunately, I'd only saved and not inflicted on you.

The good thing about being tired is that one sits and catches up with paperwork. I've brought our mailing list up to date, emailed Australia (not the whole of Australia, just one person, but it was business and therefore needed a disciplined mind to get on with) with the price of sending out china and ordered a whole lot of dull stationery supplies, as well as - well, actually, it's coincidental in view of yesterday's post - various creams and lotions to stave off the effects of old age and bricklaying for a few more weeks. I looked at travel insurance (I'm going away for a week next month) but since I will have to admit to my dodgy physical condition, it seems that I can't just fill in an online form but have to phone. I've also booked my car in for its MOT tomorrow and, even better, arranged for a friend to fetch it and deal with it for me. He's the splendid chap who found it for me in the first place, so he owes me numerous favours. Forever.*

After all this, I needed to do a bit of comfort shopping, so the debit card has taken a bit of a knock. Debit card, you notice, so that I don't need to receive a bill in the post, in case there isn't any.

The Sage has been trying to get to grips with telephone banking. He has his business account with a bank that doesn't have a branch in this town and it isn't always convenient to get over to Lowestoft. He was sent two cards, a four digit number and a PIN. He carefully memorised them and followed the instructions to key in his 16 digit account number and then the 4 digit number. Then he was asked for another 16 digit number. While he was hesitating, someone came on the line and sorted out what he wanted anyway. Then he was sent another 4 digit number in the post. So today, he tried again. Exactly the same thing happened. He isn't at all sure what this second number is., but maybe it's the other card. He'd only wanted to ask for a new chequebook, it hardly seems worth all the security.

Tomorrow, if things go as planned, we're bricklaying again.

*no air conditioning, specified as a requirement, no CD player, a stupid foot-operated hand brake that's nearly caused me to run backwards on many a hill and caused anxiety every time I park. I generally leave it in gear as I don't trust the beastly thing. Oh, and I don't think I ever told you about the time the radiator blew up. If it were not for a complete lack of interest in cars, I'd have got a different one months ago. But it works, apart from when the radiator is going 'whumf' and issuing a puff of steam, so I don't quite care enough. Also, it was surprisingly affordable which, at the time, was a factor as I hadn't scheduled replacing my car in my calculations just then.

10 comments:

Funnily enough I didn't sleep well either; first my mobile kept bleeping becuase the absent teenager sent me a text at midnight, then one of the cats had sneaked upstairs and snored loudly all night. And the BBC rarely seem to get the weather right these days.

I'm playing with the children instead, since bricklaying is off the menu. CA, being wakeful is one thing, being kept awake is another. I never take my mobile up to bed with me - if it's a chatty text it can wait until the morning, if it's important they can ring the landline.

If there's fraud (and it's happened loads of times with Amazon Marketplace just recently) your bank account will be emptied, and the bank will investigate (or not) before doing anything (or not).

Whereas, with credit card, if transactions happen that you don't recognise, they just put the transaction(s) into dispute and you're not required to pay up until they prove they're yours. Also, CCs spot fraudulent spending most times, before much use is made of the card.

ie credit card companies take the hit, not you. it can take months/years for banks to investigate fradulent debit card transactionss, and meanwhile you're missing all your money (and, if you're put into overdraft, incurring all the charges).

Try moneysavingexpert.com for tips on good travel insurance when you have pre-existing conditions, if you haven't already thought of it.

I've been having the same problem with sleep- I get into bed and read, drift off, then wake up awhile later and can't for the life if me get back to sleep. Perhaps I will try e-mailing all of Australia next time.

Bladder of steel, fortunately. When I was a small child, my sister says, I didn't care for the school loos so wouldn't use them. If I forgot to visit the lavatory before leaving the house, I waited until I got home at 4 o'clock. You'd think it'd have permanently damaged my kidneys, but they're holding up so far.

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Oh, what's the problem? This is hardly Great Literature. I'd appreciate anything taken from here being acknowledged, and I might change my mind if I'm suddenly proclaimed as the Literary Queen of the Blogosphere - but I probably wouldn't. Do what you like, just as long as it doesn't extend to defamation of anyone, even me.

Actually, you want to pass off what I say as your own, I might even be flattered. Let's face it, who cares anyway?